1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a production managing method for photo film production. More particularly, the present invention relates to a production managing method for photo film production in which continuous photo films are handled from one stage to another among plural stages of manufacturing processes, and each one of continuous photo films can be identified reliably without errors.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
A motion picture photo film is a product having a regular width and having a considerable length. To manufacture this, film web with a great width is prepared. The film web includes a support of plastic film and emulsion layers overlaid thereon, and is wound in a roll form as a master roll. The master roll is supplied into a dark room, and slitted into continuous photo film or slitted film at the width of the product in a stage for a slitting process. The continuous photo film is wound about a spool to form a slitted roll. A stage for a perforating process is supplied with the slitted roll. Perforations are formed in lateral edge portions of the continuous photo film. The continuous photo film with perforations is transferred to a stage for a photo film loading process, cut at a regular great length, and wound about a reel to obtain a roll of the motion picture photo film.
To transfer the slitted roll from the slitting stage to a stage for next process, a light-tight case is used for individually containing each one of the slitted roll. An identification number of the slitted roll is printed on the light-tight case, and will be used for determining the slitted roll in stages for succeeding processes which are the perforating process and photo film loading process.
Also, it is possible to use a transferring vehicle, which has a light-tight container portion for containing a plurality of the slitted rolls, and transfers the slitted roll from the slitting stage to next stage. To identify the slitted roll, identification information is constituted by a vehicle number assigned to the transferring vehicle, and information of a position of the slitted roll inside the transferring vehicle.
However, there arises a problem in that management of handling of the slitted roll is complicated because the slitted roll must be individually handled in a state contained in the light-tight case. Also, errors are likely to occur in the position of the slitted roll inside the transferring vehicle, and cause a serious problem in that the position inside the transferring vehicle cannot be used as identification information of the slitted roll.
Furthermore, operators for a manufacturing line of the motion picture photo film handle the slitted roll in the dark room. They manually load various devices for the above-described processes with the slitted roll, and also remove the slitted roll from the various devices. It is likely that operators incorrectly load or unload the slitted roll, because positions of setting the slitted roll in the devices cannot be confirmed visually due to the darkness.
In order to keep high quality of products, motion picture photo films should be sampled and checked for occurrence of defects. If sampled motion picture photo films have defects, all of portions of a master roll or film web must be traced in view of management of production, to detect particular portions from which the defects are derived. However, there is no known technique for identification of the slitted rolls with sufficient precision for exactly finding origins of defects in continuous photo film.
In view of the foregoing problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a production managing method for photo film production in which continuous photo films are handled from one stage to another among plural stages of manufacturing processes, and each one of continuous photo films can be identified reliably without errors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a production managing method for photo film production in which defects in continuous photo film can be readily found to keep high quality of products efficiently.
In order to achieve the above and other objects and advantages of this invention, a production managing method for photo film production includes a step of slitting film web having a great width is slitted to obtain plural continuous photo films having a small width, the film web being unwound from a master roll. Plural continuous photo film rolls are formed by winding the continuous photo films about respectively first spools, the continuous photo films being subjected in a subsequent process to treatment to obtain a photo filmstrip having a predetermined length. A first non-optical recording medium is attached to each one of the rolls, the recording medium storing information related to at least the film web, and being read in the subsequent process for use in managing the photo film production in the subsequent process.
Also, film web is slit to produce continuous photo film having a predetermined width. Production managing information is written to a non-optical recording medium, the production managing information being related to at least one of the film web and the continuous photo film. The continuous photo film is cut to produce photo film. The production managing information is stored in association with the photo film. The photo film is checked, wherein if the photo film has a defect, the production managing information is referred to for detecting a portion of the film web or the continuous photo film from which the defect derives, other photo films with a defect being traced.
Furthermore, a first roll is formed by winding the continuous photo film obtained by the slitting step. The recording medium is attached to the first roll. The continuous photo film is supplied from the first roll. The continuous photo film from the first roll is subjected to treatment. After the treatment step and before the cutting step, a second roll is formed by winding the continuous photo film. The production managing information is read from the recording medium. In the information storing step, the production managing information being read is stored in association with the second roll.
In the treatment step, the continuous photo film is perforated. In the second roll forming step, the second roll is formed by winding the continuous photo film in a direction opposite to the first roll.
The recording medium is a non-contact IC memory.
The production managing information includes slitting number information for specifying the continuous photo film.
Furthermore, in or after the cutting step, the photo film is wound about a reel, so as to obtain a photo film roll constituted by the reel and the photo film.
The photo film is motion picture photo film.
The first and second rolls are formed by winding the continuous photo film about respectively first and second spools.
The information storing step includes attaching a second non-optical recording medium to the second roll. The production managing information is written to the second recording medium.
The recording medium is attached to the first spool.
The medium attaching step is before the information writing step, the recording medium is previously attached to the first spool. The information writing step is before the continuous photo film supplying step.
Furthermore, a case sticker code is read from a container case. The photo film roll is inserted into the continuous case. The production managing information is stored in association with the case sticker code, the production managing information being read according to the case sticker code for tracing the photo film.
The production managing information further includes common information, constituted by at least one type information, lot number information, and master roll number information of the film web, and being common among plural continuous photo films obtained by the slitting step.
The non-contact IC memory is a wireless non-contact ID tag.
The recording medium is in a stick shape, disk shape or board shape.
According to a preferred embodiment, the recording medium is removable from the first spool.
Furthermore, the recording medium is removed from the first roll. The information storing step comprises attaching the recording medium to the second roll.
The information writing step is before the medium attaching step of attachment to the first roll.
According to another preferred embodiment, the recording medium has a small thickness. The first spool includes a recording medium slot, having a width corresponding to the thickness of the recording medium, for containing the recording medium removably.
According to a preferred embodiment, before the reading step, the recording medium is removed from the first roll.
The recording medium is in a sheet shape or film shape, and is attached with tacky adhesive agent to the continuous photo film, for preventing an end portion of the continuous photo film from being unwound from the first roll.
According to still another preferred embodiment, the recording medium includes a coil-shaped antenna, attached to a surface of the first spool, for sending and receiving a signal in a wireless manner. A communication IC chip has a memory and a communication circuit, the memory storing information, the communication circuit being supplied with the signal by the coil-shaped antenna for producing the information to be stored, the communication circuit reading the information from the memory for producing the signal to be sent.